We performed a comparison between ManageEngine Desktop Central and Microsoft Intune based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: Based on the parameters we compared, ManageEngine Desktop Central seems to be the more favorable product. Its ease of deployment, its solid set of features, its affordable pricing, and its service and support all top Microsoft Intune’s offerings.
"The most valuable in Desktop Central is the way it is tightly coupled with the rest of the modules and the entire gamut of ManageEngine."
"The initial setup is pretty straightforward."
"The solution's most valuable features are its patch management capabilities, especially for third-party applications, along with quick and easy configuration and deployment processes."
"Everything is easily centralized and managed under this one product."
"Honestly, I have to say all features together have become the Swiss army knife of desktop management. They all work hand in hand. Software deployment saves an unbelievable amount of time installing an application on hundreds of computers."
"Its cross-platform capabilities and the ability to do both OS-level patching and third-party patching are valuable. It is difficult to find a software product that will do all that for you out of the box, and you don't have to do any configuration other than your initial setup. Once you do that, there is a very minimalistic approach to getting it operational. You can have it up and running within a 20-minute time span."
"In terms of technical capability, it is doing very well. It is doing better than other industry products. It is at a place where we can compare it with Microsoft products. Its scalability is also good."
"I like being able to image over the network. That's a nice feature that it has. Patch management is pretty decent on it as well."
"The conditional access policies that we set up are very useful."
"One of the standout features of Intune is its seamless accessibility to work data, eliminating the need to be tied to an office or a desktop."
"Users can make screenshots, and devices only need the minimal version of iOS."
"Stable solution at a good price."
"We have one MDM that works with Windows, iOS, and Android."
"With on-premises Active Directory, the main challenge was that we had no control when a user was working from home. We didn't know what exactly a user was doing and whether the AV was up to date or not. Intune provides better control of their machines."
"It's easy to manage and easy to configure."
"Intune can wipe devices. For example, if a disgruntled employee wants to leak the data on their company phone, Intune can terminate their access and wipe the entire device with a click."
"Each of their products is an independent product, and they don't have anything to do with each other. It is a suite of packages. They all run independently, and they all are a little different because they were acquired differently. They could standardize their portfolio."
"The pricing is lower than other well-respected solutions in this category."
"Computer imaging is powerful but breaks frequently. The reason for this breaking is not clear and requires heavy amounts of attention to keep operational. There is a lot of room for this tool to do more but the reliability of this process should be focused on first to ensure core competencies are being fixed before more features are added."
"ManageEngine Desktop Central should keep up with some of the features that other major vendors are providing, such as Microsoft."
"It might be helpful if they offered a simpler way to use the OS deployment function. It's a bit complicated for most of the customers."
"Improvement of the chats on the web communication through the WAN would be helpful."
"I would like to see more click to complete actions such as - USB lockdown for Mac, the ability to check AV compliance on servers, bit locker controls, printer tracking or print page tracking, self-help for self-healing like "BMC my IT" and more options in the self-service menu other than just software - maybe add integration in ADSelfService at the self-service menu."
"Improvement should be done as per customer requirements."
"In the past, I raised some tickets for the enhancement feature, which was missing in Intune."
"Microsoft Intune is not user-friendly to manage and has room for improvement."
"The difficulty of the the roll out is surprisingly difficult considering this product is supposed to be an integrated part of the 365 suite."
"The solution could improve its flexibility."
"When somebody has a customized application or their own company's application, we cannot deploy that application."
"It would help if administrators could pinpoint the exact location of a stolen device to help law enforcement retrieve it and apprehend the suspect."
"I would like to see the ability to deploy custom packages as a Windows 64-bit package, as opposed to the Windows 32-bit, which is the only one available now."
"The solution requires Mac support."
More ManageEngine Endpoint Central Pricing and Cost Advice →
ManageEngine Endpoint Central is ranked 4th in Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) with 59 reviews while Microsoft Intune is ranked 1st in Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) with 163 reviews. ManageEngine Endpoint Central is rated 8.2, while Microsoft Intune is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of ManageEngine Endpoint Central writes "An in-depth and intuitive product with good cross-platform capabilities, but they should have a more global support channel". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Microsoft Intune writes "We can manage all aspects of our devices from a single console, easy to scale, and quick to deploy". ManageEngine Endpoint Central is most compared with Microsoft Configuration Manager, VMware Workspace ONE, Jamf Pro, ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus and SOTI MobiControl, whereas Microsoft Intune is most compared with Jamf Pro, VMware Workspace ONE, SOTI MobiControl, Microsoft Entra ID and IBM MaaS360. See our ManageEngine Endpoint Central vs. Microsoft Intune report.
See our list of best Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) vendors and best UEM (Unified Endpoint Management) vendors.
We monitor all Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.
ManageEngine has a great patch management feature. It is actually one of my favorite features because it allows you to approve or decline whichever windows or third-party patches you want. You can also schedule them during off hours, force reboots, or even wake devices up for patching. ManageEngine also has a very small yet powerful installation file, which I found very easy to deploy across the network even though I have several remote locations. Considering that ManageEngine is a multi-asset and IT process manager, it enables you to effectively manage all of the assets very well and has a very intuitive and dynamic interface.
One thing I dislike about ManageEngine is their software deployment tools. It’s great for mass deployments but I wish it included one-off deployments to a single computer. Also, in order to enable the file transfer option when you are using it for the first time, you have to install a plugin. Sometimes the control center can be a little slow, too.
Microsoft Intune is robust and it allows you to deploy applications to its enrolled devices. This makes it a beneficial solution in asset management and also patching machines. It also gives you the ability to restrict user actions on their machines, which I find to be very helpful from a security standpoint. In general, Microsoft Intune’s enrollment process on devices is straightforward and easy. You can set policies, and administrators are able to guide users on how to enroll their machines. One major downside of Microsoft Intune for me is that it has inferior and poor quality device reporting.
Conclusion:
Overall, I would recommend ManageEngine because not only is it a well-developed tool, but it also provides an excellent adaptation to its interface, and I have found its implementation and use to be nothing less than exceptional.
Hi . I use both systems . Intune is simply too good to configure a system via autopilot and enforce AD/ Azure AD policy whereas Desktop Central is excellent for patching
Desktop Central is great for patch deployment and software deployment but falls short on many other fronts like correctly reporting information - I had to raise tickets to their support to get it fixed
Intune too has its issues - I does not have an inventory reporting functionality
The company portal is an app which has to be installed on the endpoint . The reporting mechanism is not on par with Desktop Central.
DC does not have the OS deployment capability ( OS Deployer is an add on) whereas Intune has the Autopilot capability built into the system to remote install the laptop including enabling bitlocker encryption
DC has strong patch deployment capability whereas its bit vague on Intune
This list goes on so Im stopping here